For the annual “Best” exhibition presented by Ohio Designer Craftsmen at the Ohio Craft Museum,
the selection of the year’s finest high-craft works by member artists is turned over to fresh
eyes.

The practice of inviting professionals from craft institutions and learning centers nationwide
not only familiarizes them with what is being created in Ohio but also adds different concerns and
focuses to the jurying process.

This year’s jurors — Nicole Nathan and Namita Gupta Wiggers, administrators at the Museum of
Contemporary Craft in Portland, Ore. — paid special attention to “works that use
craft as a verb, as a way of making.”

As they explain in their statement, “What we hope to bring forward in our selections are
materials that make you, the viewer, aware of the hand in the process of material
transformation."

It isn’t surprising that several exceptional craft artists whose work has appeared frequently in
these shows pop up again in 2014. Among them are Kaname Takada, a ceramist who fills earthenware
pieces with hypnotically precise geometric patterns, and Michael B. Hays, a metalsmith who gives
formal perfection to functional pieces such as a pewter pitcher and tumblers.

The jurors were also won over by a sense of humor. Topping the visually witty selections is Tom
Muir’s
Elegant Gentleman’s Prosthetic Mustache. The winner of a special prize, the
silver-and-steel handlebar mustache is outfitted with nose pincers to keep it on the wearer’s face,
making the modern facial-hair trend accessible to all.

Leslie Schug lends a playful feminine perspective to personal adornment with
Futility Goddess, a brooch that combines a Roy Lichtenstein-like portrait with a dangling
Venus of Willendorf.

Eric Marlow makes clever use of everyday materials in
Finger Lickin’ Good, a sculpture of a nesting chicken formed entirely from plastic
tableware and drinking straws found in fast-food restaurants.

Nostalgia is tempered with good-natured irreverence in the works of fiber artist Mary Ann
Tipple. She converts an old family photo into a shrine for a domestic goddess in
Our Lady of the Kitchen and highlights the not-so-rocking side of musical performance with
the marching band-mate portrait
Occasionally a Sonorous Tone Would Erupt From a Band Member.

Perhaps the most striking works, however, are those that simultaneously fulfill and defy
traditional high-craft expectations. The work of basket-maker Elizabeth Runyon is an exceptional
example.

Breaking away from the folksiness and function of her medium, she uses woven reeds to create a
giant rat in the piece
Critter and conjures up a sense of existential doom with the title of the nonfunctional
basket
No Exit.